Arson Murder Cases

Maricopa County, AZ

John Knapp

Nov 16, 1973 (East Mesa)

John Henry Knapp was sentenced to death for allegedly setting
a fire that killed his two daughters, Linda Louise, 3 1/2, and Iona Marie, 2
1/2. The fire occurred in the children's bedroom at the Knapp house located
at 7435 East Capri in East Mesa, AZ. Shortly before the coroner's inquest,
Knapp's wife, Linda, fled to Nebraska. Knapp was told that a fuel can found
at the site of the fire had no identifiable children's prints (thus ruling
out accident), but did contain numerous adult prints. During his
interrogation, Knapp confessed to setting the fire, but recanted within
minutes and never wavered in maintaining his innocence.Read More by Clicking Here

Pima County, AZ

Louis Taylor

Dec 21, 1970 (Tucson)

Louis C. Taylor was convicted of 28 counts of first-degree
murder. He was accused of setting fire to the Pioneer International
Hotel on the northeast corner of Stone Ave. and Pennington St. in downtown
Tucson. Twenty-nine people died as a result of the fire, including one
woman who died months later from injuries sustained in the fire. Taylor, 16, whose juvenile-court record included theft, was accused of
setting the fire (or fires) as a diversion so he could steal from guests'
rooms. No one saw him set the fire. But a hotel employee saw him in a
stairwell looking up at the flames and mentioned him to police. Other
witnesses said he was one of that night's heroes, helping to evacuate the
hotel.

The chief arson investigator found no obvious evidence of
arson – no residue of flammable liquid or burned matchsticks. Instead
he asserted from burn patterns that two fires were started at least 60 feet
apart on the fourth floor hallway. Modern experts now dispute the
arson finding, and even one of the original investigators, Marshall Smyth,
said that he and another fire investigator were like members of “a black
magic society” that in those days relied on untested assumptions about what
indicated arson. “I came to this opinion some time ago that neither
one of us had any business identifying that fire as arson.”

Taylor, after decades of imprisonment, recalled that over the
years others – including his former trial judge – advised him to seek a
reduced sentence. But one condition was that he admit guilt and show
remorse. Taylor said, “I told them I'd rather die in prison.” In
2003, the case was featured on a
60 Minutes episode. (Hotel
Online) [1/07]

Yavapai County, AZ

Ray Girdler

Nov 20, 1981

Ray Girdler was convicted of setting a fire that killed his
wife and child. The conviction was based on testimony by the prosecution's
“expert” witness that a flammable liquid was present in Girdler's home. Subsequent tests showed there were no such liquids and that the fire started
from natural origins. Girdler was cleared in 1990 after 8 years of
imprisonment. [7/05]

Los Angeles County, CA

Fred Rogers

1941

Courtney Fred Rogers was sentenced to death for the murders of
his parents. In Oct. 1941 his 50-year-old father was rescued from a
burning house, but later died of smoke inhalation. Investigators found
burning candles in the house and determined that fires had been set in
several rooms. The death of Rogers Sr. was ruled a suicide. Eight months earlier, Rogers' mother had died from the inhalation of
chloroform. Her death had also been ruled a suicide.

Four months after the death of his father, Rogers was arrested
for making a false $400 insurance claim. Police found that the
24-year-old was heavily in debt and began to wonder if he had killed his
parents in order to collect on life insurance. Rogers, however,
received no insurance proceeds for the death of his mother, although he did
receive full ownership of the home he had jointly owned with her. He
received only $1000 for the death of his father plus $2300 for damage to the
house. Such proceeds were small compared to Rogers' debts.

After 16 days of more-or-less continuous questioning by
police, Rogers confessed to the murders of his parents, a confession that he
soon retracted. Nevertheless, he was convicted of these alleged
murders. In 1943, the California Supreme Court unanimously threw out
Rogers' convictions. Evidence that his mother had committed suicide
was clear and convincing. The same was true in regard to the death of
his father. Neighbors had testified at how despondent Rogers Sr. was
over the death of his wife and how he often had spoken of taking his own
life. Neighbors also said he had spoken of his dread of being left
alone, after Rogers Jr., his only son, answered a draft call into the army. Rogers Jr. was scheduled to report the day after the fatal fire. At
retrial, in the face of no evidence against Rogers, the retrial court
dismissed charges. (ISI)
(Time) [2/09]

Stanislaus County, CA

George Souliotes

Jan 15, 1997 (Modesto)

George Souliotes was convicted of arson and triple homicide
stemming from a 3 a.m. fire at 1319 Ronald Ave. in Modesto that killed his
tenant, Michelle Jones, 30, and her two children, Daniel Jr., 6, and Amanda,
3. At the time of the fire, Souliotes was trying to evict the Jones
family from the house. Investigators claimed that Souliotes set the fire to
collect insurance money. Investigators also claimed that medium
petroleum distillates, a class of sometimes-flammable substances, were found
on both Souliotes's shoes and a carpet in the home. At trial many
defenses witnesses testified that Souliotes had no financial motive to set
the fire. The defense also presented its own arson expert who testified that
the fire could have been an accident, possibly caused by a faulty stove. The
trial ended in a hung jury.

At the second trial, in 1999, Souliotes was represented by the
same trial attorney. The prosecution presented the same witnesses, but
this time the defense counsel presented no witnesses at all. Souliotes was
convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Since his second trial,
arson investigators have reanalyzed the evidence, and found that the medium
petroleum distillate found on Souliotes's shoes is not the same substance
that was found at the scene. (IP
Arson) [12/07]

New Castle County, DE

Mark Kirk

Dec 5, 1996 (New Castle)

Mark Anthony Kirk was convicted of triple homicide for
allegedly starting an apartment house fire that killed three people. The
fire began on a stove in Kirk's apartment in Building 8 of the Beaver Brook
Apartments. Police interrogated Kirk for hours, and engaged in
psychological manipulations including threatening him with a death
sentence. Kirk eventually confessed to accidentally starting the fire. He
said he was using an electric burner on the stove to light a cigarette when
he spilled a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum on the burner, causing
the fire.Read More by Clicking Here

Butts County, GA

Jean Long

Jan 23, 2003

Beverly Jean Long was charged with murdering her husband,
James Long, in his workshop. According to police, she cracked his
skull, dragged his body, poured an accelerant on top of him, and ignited it. Investigators claimed to find pour patterns on the floor where the
accelerant puddled. They said Jean's story that the fire started when
James was filling up a kerosene heater did not make sense. They noted
that the red filling can that Jean mentioned was found undamaged outside the
workshop.

Defense investigators debunked the pour pattern evidence. According to them, James mistakenly poured gasoline into a hot, but unlit
kerosene heater. Gasoline residue was found in the heater. The
gasoline exploded, setting James and his workshop on fire. While he
was running around on fire, James apparently hit his head on a metal
worktable, cracking his skull. The red filling can found outside the
workshop was apparently not the one that was used as it contained kerosene. At trial, Jean Long was acquitted. (Forensic
Files) [9/07]

Fulton County, GA

Weldon Wayne Carr

Apr 7, 1993 (Sandy Springs)

Weldon Wayne Carr was convicted of the arson-murder of his
wife in 1993. A trained dog purportedly found evidence that an accelerant
was used to start the fire. Prosecutors said Carr had discovered his wife
was having an affair and alleged that he knocked her unconscious before
setting their house on fire. The jury acquitted Carr of assault. In 1997,
the Georgia Supreme Court overturned Carr's conviction and the Court ordered
a new trial. Carr was released on bond in 1998. In June 2004, the Georgia
Supreme Court ordered the charges dropped because the prosecution had not
initiated a retrial after six years. The prosecution was unable to find an
expert to support their theory of the crime. (Atlanta
JC) [7/05]

Cook County, IL

Lloyd Lindsey

Oct 21, 1974

Lloyd Lindsey was convicted of murdering three little girls
and their brother. He was also convicted of raping one of the girls. A man who boarded with the children's family and a surviving brother told
police when interviewed together that Lindsey along with Eugene Ford and
Willie Robinson had strangled the children after raping the girls. The
three men then set fire to the home. Lindsey confessed to this crime,
parroting the details of the boarder and surviving brother. The home,
at 1408 W. 61st Street in Chicago, was occupied by Mrs. Catherine Horace,
her six children, and Lavelle Watkins, the boarder.

Medical evidence indicated that the children had not been
strangled, but had died of smoke inhalation. Two of the girls,
moreover, were virgins and showed no signs of sexual abuse. Lindsey
and his compatriots, who had not confessed, were tried together, but with
separate juries. Lindsey was convicted, but his compatriots were
acquitted. In 1979, the Illinois Appellate Court reversed Lindsey's
conviction, and barred a retrial. It ruled “the inconsistencies in the
testimony of [the principal prosecution witnesses] were not only
contradictory but diluted [their testimony] to the level of palpable
improbability and incredulity.” (CWC)
[1/06]

Cook County, IL

Madison Hobley

Jan 6, 1987

A fire broke out in Madison Hobley's apartment building early
in the morning, which killed his wife, infant son, and five other people. Hobley escaped wearing only underwear. Later in the day, detectives
picked him up and tortured him in an attempt to extract a confession that he
started the fire. When torture did not work, four detectives asserted
that Hobley made a confession. No record of this confession existed. One detective claimed to have made notes but threw them away after something
spilled on them.

The prosecution claimed that Hobley had bought $1 worth of
gasoline, which he used to start the fire. They produced a gasoline
can allegedly found at the fire scene, but a defense expert pointed out that
it showed no exposure to the high heat of the fire, as its plastic cap was
undamaged. After trial, the defense learned that a second gasoline can
was found at the fire scene but police destroyed it after the defense issued
a subpoena for it.

In addition, post-conviction affidavits of jurors stated that
non-jurors intimidated some of them while they were sequestered at a hotel,
and that they were prejudiced by the acts of the jury foreperson, a police
officer, who believed Hobley was guilty. The affidavits also stated
that jurors brought newspapers with articles about the case into the jury
room and that they repeatedly violated the trial court's sequestration. In 2003, Gov. George Ryan granted Hobley a pardon based on innocence.
(CWC)
[9/05]

Whitley County, KY

Larry Osborne

Dec 14, 1997

Larry Osborne was convicted of murdering Sam Davenport, 82,
and his wife Lillian, 76. He was sentenced to death. The victims
were hit over the head and their house was set on fire. They died of
smoke inhalation. Osborne, 17, and his friend, Joe Reid, 15, said they
heard breaking glass from the Davenport home when they passed it while
riding a motorbike on the night of the murders. Osborne phoned his
mother, who in turn phoned the police. When the police arrived at the
scene, the house was in flames.

After repeated interrogations, police got 15-year-old Reid to
state that Osborne committed the murders while he waited outside. In a
police videotape of Reid's statements, Reid is seen asking “Is this going to
get me out of all this stuff?” Reid also stated that after Osborne set
fire to the house, he left it through the back door. However the back
door had a dead bolt lock, with a double key. It is not believed that
anyone one went through it that night.

Before Reid could testify at Osborne's trial, he drowned while
swimming in Jellico, Tennessee. His death was ruled accidental. At Osborne's trial, the prosecutor read Reid's statement. The defense
objected, but the judge overruled the objection. On appeal, the
Kentucky Supreme Court overturned Osborne's conviction. Reid's
testimony was ruled inadmissible because a dead witness cannot be
cross-examined. Osborne was acquitted at retrial after spending three
years on death row. (Louisville
CJ) (TWM)
(JD)

Rapides Parish, LA

Amanda Hypes

Jan 2001 (Tioga)

Amanda Hypes, aka Amanda Gutweiler, was indicted in April 2002
for the arson murder of her three children, Sadie Plum, 10, Luke Hayden, 6,
and Jessica Gutweiler, 3. A fire “expert,” John DeHaan, ruled that the
Jan. 2001 fire that destroyed her home on Friar Tuck Road in Tioga was
arson. Prosecutors said they would demand the death penalty. After being held in jail awaiting trial for more than four years, a judge
dismissed the indictment and released Hypes. He ruled that the
original arson finding was based “merely on an old wives tale,” of
discredited fire investigation techniques. (Chicago
Tribune) [3/07]

Jackson County, MO

Kansas City Five

Nov 29, 1988

Darlene Edwards, 43, Frank Sheppard, 46, Earl “Skip” Sheppard,
37, Bryan Sheppard, 26, and Richard Brown, 26, all Native Americans, were
convicted of setting a fire that caused an explosion and killed six
firefighters. The fire occurred at a site associated with the
construction of a ten-mile road. Two trailers on the site contained
50,000 pounds of construction explosives. The explosion had 5 times
the impact of the Oklahoma City bomb, evaporated a fire department pumper,
and was heard 45 miles away. As late as 1995, ATF agents said on the
TV show Unsolved Mysteries that the fire was set by organized labor
to teach the general contractor a lesson for using non-union labor. But the demand for closure and $50,000 reward money led police and prison
snitches to finger five indigent Native Americans who had nothing to do with
organized labor. (Crime Magazine:
Part 1Part
2) (KC Fire Fighters Case)
[9/05]

Lawrence County, MO

Johnny Lee Wilson

Apr 13, 1986 (Aurora)

Johnny Lee Wilson was convicted of the murder of 79-year-old
Pauline Martz. Martz had been beaten up, tied, and then burned after her
home was set on fire. Wilson, a mentally retarded man, had confessed to the
crime after a police interrogation. In 1988, another man, Chris Brownfield,
gave a confession to the crime which provided details that corroborated his
involvement. Wilson was pardoned and released in 1995. (U.S.
News) [4/08]

St. Louis County, MO

Sandra Kemper

Nov 16, 2001 (Black Jack)

Sandra Kemper confessed to starting a house fire that killed
her 15-year-old son after she was told that she failed a lie detector test. The defense argued the confession was coerced. The trial judge allowed
evidence of the lie detector test into the trial. The defense argued that
it showed an 88 percent probability she was telling the truth. The judge
then declared a mistrial because he changed his mind about the admissibility
of the test. In 2006, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that Kemper cannot
be retried, as a retrial would violate the law against double jeopardy.
(Appeal) [9/06]

Kings County, NY

Eric Jackson

Aug 2, 1978

Eric (Erick) Jackson, also known as Eric Knight, was convicted
of setting a fire to a Waldbaum's Supermarket in Sheepshead Bay. Six
firefighters died in the blaze. The investigation was plagued by
public disputes between fire marshals and police arson investigators. After an informant fingered him, Jackson was indicted in May 1979 on arson
and murder charges. Police said he confessed to setting the fire for
$500. Jackson was sentenced to 25 years to life.

The firefighters’ widows hired an attorney, Robert Sullivan,
to bring a lawsuit for civil damages. In the course of preparing that
lawsuit, Sullivan concluded that Jackson was innocent. Sullivan turned his
efforts toward obtaining Jackson’s release. He was later recognized by
the New York State Bar Association for his efforts in the case.

In 1988, a judge overturned Jackson's conviction because
prosecutors had withheld evidence from his defense. This information
included a fire marshal’s report that there had been “four separate and
distinct fires” in the supermarket, of which only one caused the deaths of
the firefighters. In addition, a New York City Police detective who had been
involved in the investigation concluded that the fire was caused by an
electrical short circuit, and said that he had repeatedly told this to the
District Attorney’s office.

In 1994, Jackson was retried. The defense maintained
that Jackson's confession was coerced and that the fire was an accident
resulting from faulty electrical wiring. Jackson was acquitted and
released after serving nearly ten years in prison. (IP
Arson) (Inevitable Error) (People
v. Jackson) [7/07]

Westchester County, NY

Luis Marin

Dec 4, 1980

“Luis Marin was convicted in Westchester County of twenty-six
counts of murder arising from a [fire at a Stouffer’s Inn in Harrison, NY.] Marin successfully moved the trial court for a post-verdict order dismissing
the indictments based on insufficiency of the trial evidence. The
prosecution appealed. The Appellate Division and Court of Appeals upheld
the trial court order of dismissal. It was held that having an empty
gasoline container and siphon in his car were insufficient facts to support
the inference that Marin had set the fire. In sum, the evidence presented
at trial was simply insufficient to sustain the charges. ‘[T]he loss of
life at the Stouffer’s Inn fire was a tragedy of staggering proportion ...
However, the tragedy would be compounded by the conviction and imprisonment
of a person whose criminal responsibility for that tragedy has not been
proven.’” – Inevitable Error (Appeals)

Cuyahoga County, OH

Eve Rudd

June 10, 2001

Twenty-seven-year-old Eve Rudd was indicted by a grand jury
for the arson murders of her 4-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son. Authorities charged Rudd after finding pour patterns, which they said were
evidence that she had doused clothing and papers in a second-floor bedroom
with cooking oil and set the room ablaze. But the pour patterns proved
to be a faulty indicator of arson.

Kenneth Gibson, a fire investigator retained by defense
lawyers, videotaped an experiment with cooking oil and found it was not an
accelerant – the oil by itself was not flammable unless it was heated to 540
degrees. Gerald Hurst, who also investigated the fire for the defense,
said there were so many burn patterns, “you can't interpret them anymore.” A jury acquitted Rudd after she spent nine months in jail. [10/07]

Putnam County, OH

Kenny Richey

June 30, 1986

Kenny Richey was sentenced to death for the murder of
three-year-old Cynthia Collins. Richey was allegedly angry at an
ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend, so he allegedly set fire to the
apartment above theirs, hoping the fire would burn through the concrete
floor and injure them while they slept. The prosecution advanced this
theory even though they seemed to agree that Richey knew that Cynthia
Collins was sleeping in that apartment. During the fire, Richey had
risked his life trying to rescue Cynthia, so his alleged actions do not make
sense. Cynthia's mother, Hope Collins, had left in the middle of the
night with a convicted drug dealer. When she came back after the fire,
she faced prosecution for child abandonment, so she told authorities Richey
had agreed to babysit Cynthia.

The prosecution also claimed Richey made vague statements at a
party before the fire, saying the building was going to burn, almost as
though they were statements about the party. Curiously, the alleged
statements imply a casual motive instead of the proffered one. Whether
true or not, vague statements are characteristic of perjured testimony. Individuals who lie on the stand typically do not want to get caught and
will only readily make statements they can back away from. One witness
later denied her testimony while another claimed Richey did not mean
anything by the statement she testified to. Richey denied making such
statements and thought it was stupid that he would make them if he intended
to do what the prosecution alleged.

It was later learned that Cynthia started two previous fires. Carpet remnants from the burned apartment had been discarded and buried at
the local dump. After the police retrieved the buried remnants, the
remnants were said to contain traces of accelerants, gasoline, and paint
thinner. The federal Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned
Richey's conviction in Jan. 2005. However, the state appealed to the
U.S. Supreme Court, which reinstated the conviction in Nov. 2005. The
Supreme Court remanded the case back to the Sixth Circuit Court, which again
reversed Richey's conviction in Aug. 2007. In Dec. 2007, Richey was
released after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter, child
endangering and breaking and entering charges. The plea involved no
admission of guilt. He received a time-served sentence. [12/06]

Cumberland County, PA

Letitia Smallwood

Aug 29, 1972 (Carlisle)

Letitia Denise Smallwood was convicted of the arson murders of
two people who died in an apartment building fire. The fire occurred at 11
North Pitt St. in Carlisle during the early morning hours of Aug. 29, 1972. The decedents, Paula Wagner and Steven Johnson were residents of the
building. Wagner died of injuries received when jumping from the building. Johnson, unable to escape the flames, died from extensive burns. A second
floor witness and a third floor witness to the fire described the fire
differently. The third floor witness saw the fire at about 2:35 a.m. The
second floor witness reported seeing the fire at “2:20 or 3:20.” The
prosecutor coaxed this witness to agree that he could have seen the fire at
20 minutes to 3. Since the witnesses apparently saw two different fires at
about the same time, the prosecutor then argued that the fire must have been
arson because it must have had two separate points of origin. Smallwood was
convicted by weak circumstantial evidence backed by the belief that the fire
was an unquestionable case of arson. (TruthInJustice)

Lehigh County, PA

Dennis Counterman

July 25, 1988 (Allentown)

Dennis Counterman was sentenced to death for the arson murder
of his three children. The children perished in a fire at their row
house home located at 436 Chestnut St. in Allentown. On the morning of
the fire, neighbors reported seeing Dennis in his back yard in his underwear
screaming for help because his kids were inside. The fire department
believed that the fire was set and accelerants must have been used because
of the speed with which the fire spread through the house. Expert
testimony has since shown that the type of sofa that was in the Counterman's
house acts as its own accelerant, and that the fire theories relied upon by
the local fire department were outdated and have long since been repudiated.

At trial, the prosecution suppressed exculpatory evidence,
although it released some evidence in the middle of the trial when the
defense team was too overwhelmed to review it. Counterman's
six-year-old son, Christopher, had a history of fire starting and in fact
had burn scars from a prior fire that he had started. Christopher had
set fire to the curtains in the house one month before. The
prosecution's lead witness, Counterman's mentally retarded wife, told
investigators at the time of the fire that Dennis was asleep when the fire
started (he had worked the night shift the evening before) and that she had
awakened him to alert him that the house was on fire. Under the joint
influence of police interrogation and heavy medication for severe burns, she
subsequently gave a statement that Dennis had set the fire. Counterman's conviction was overturned in 2001 because the state withheld
evidence of Christopher's fire starting. Rather than face the
uncertainty of a new trial, Counterman agreed to a time served plea in which
he did not have to admit guilt. He was released in Oct. 2006. (TruthInJustice)
(CounterPunch)
[1/07]

Monroe County, PA

Han Tak Lee

July 29, 1989 (Stroud Twp)

Han Tak Lee was convicted of murder for allegedly setting a
cabin fire that led to his daughter's death. Investigators schooled in old
and now discredited fire investigation beliefs ruled the fire an arson. Beginning in the 1980s, some investigators began setting experimental fires
and observing the results. The results of these experiments overturned old
beliefs and made fire investigation a science. Modern science-based arson
investigators say that the cabin fire that led to the death of Lee's
daughter was an accidental fire. (USA
Today) (Arson
Investigation) [3/07]

Montgomery County, PA

Paul Camiolo

Sept 30, 1996

Paul Camiolo was charged in 1999 for the 1996 arson murder of
his parents after they died from a fire in the home he shared with them. He faced the death penalty. Authorities also charged Camiolo with
insurance fraud. They said he set the fire to collect on a $400,000
inheritance. Camiolo's chain smoking mother had presumably started the
fire by dropping a cigarette or match on a sofa. Camiolo tried to put
out the fire by throwing a pitcher of water on it, but such an action only
made the fire worse. He said he told his semi-invalid parents to go
out the back door and he called 911. His mother made it out to the
back porch, but later died from injuries sustained during the fire. His father was found in an indoor bathroom and was pronounced dead soon
afterwards. Camiolo went out the front door and was retrieving clothes
from a gym bag in his car when police arrived. It was shortly before
dawn and he was still in his underwear. On arrival, the police
witnessed the living room windows blow out as the fire reached flashover
status.

Floor samples from the first floor where the fire originated
tested positive for the presence of gasoline. However, neither the
carpet nor the padding above the floor tested positive for gasoline. A
volunteer firefighter, Steven Avato, who helped fight the fire, happened to
have experience as an ATF arson investigator. He was dumbfounded that
Camiolo was charged and rocked the boat by publicly criticizing the arson
charges. The state thought Camiolo's exit through the front door was
suspicious, but Avato thought it was common for people caught in fires to
exit through the door they most commonly use, even if it is not the closest
one.

A private investigator tracked down the contractor who built
the house. The contractor said the sealer used on the hardwood floors
had been thinned with gasoline. Lab tests were performed that revealed
the presence of lead in the detected gasoline. Since leaded gas had not been
sold for 15 years prior to the fire, investigators concluded that it could
not have been used to start this fire. The charges against Camiolo
were dropped and he was released after 10 months of imprisonment. For
taking a stand in the case for which he was later proven right, Investigator
Avato won an Investigator of the Year Award from the International
Association of Arson Investigators. (Forensic
Files) (TruthInJustice)
[9/05]

Philadelphia County, PA

Robert Wilkinson

Oct 5, 1975

Robert Wilkinson, a mildly retarded man, was convicted in 1976
of the arson murders of five people. At 3:25 a.m. on Oct 5, 1975
someone used a Molotov cocktail to firebomb the home of Radamas Santiago. The Santiagos, who lived at 4419 North 4th Street, were then asleep in their
home. Radamas and one of his sons, Carlos, survived. Radamas's
wife, three of his children, and Luis Caracini, a guest in the house,
perished in the fire. At the time of the firebombing, 14-year-old
Nelson Garcia, a friend of the Santiagos, was sleeping on their front porch. His hair aflame, Garcia fled from the house, looking for a fire alarm.
Garcia saw Robert Wilkinson in an automobile stopped near the Santiago home. Because Wilkinson was the first person he saw, Garcia assumed that Wilkinson
had thrown the firebomb. He accused Wilkinson, who police then
arrested. Garcia later elaborated that he had seen Wilkinson throw a
bottle with a burning cloth onto the Santiago porch.Read More by Clicking Here

Philadelphia County, PA

Daniel Dougherty

Aug 24, 1985

In 2000, Daniel J. Dougherty was convicted of starting a 1985
fire at his Carver St. house that killed his two sons, Danny Jr., 4, and
John, 3. He was sentenced to death. Thirteen years after the
fire, Dougherty's ex-wife called police and said he used gasoline to start
the fire. Despite the fact that no traces of gasoline or accelerant
were found during the fire investigation, the fire marshal, John J. Quinn,
changed his original story to match that of Dougherty's ex-wife. On
the day of Dougherty's arrest, his ex-wife left a message on his sister's
answering machine stating, “I know he didn't do this. I still love
him.” The tape then mysteriously disappeared after being given to his
court-appointed attorney. However, paperwork surfaced that documented
the tape.

By this time, two prison informants claimed that Dougherty
confessed to them that he started the fire. The fire marshal then
changed his story again so as to not so closely match the discredited
testimony of Dougherty's ex-wife. Dougherty's ex-wife was not used at
trial. At trial, the fire marshal testified that there were three
separate sources of ignition, a classic indicator of arson according to old
school fire investigation techniques.

Three arson experts using modern techniques have since
reviewed the case and dispute the alleged separate sources of ignition. They found the original investigation to be so flawed that it was impossible
to tell whether the fire was arson. One of them, John J. Lentini,
estimated that nationally between 100 and 200 people might be “doing hard
time” for arsons that were not arsons. As of 2007, Dougherty is
appealing his conviction. (DeathRowUSA)
(News Article) (04)
(09)
[3/07]

Lubbock County, TX

Butch Martin

Feb 25, 1998

Garland Leon Martin, also known as Butch, was convicted of the
arson murders of his common law wife, Marcia Pool, her son, Michael Brady
Stevens, age 3, and their joint daughter, Kristen Rhea Martin, age 1. The three died in a fire at the home they shared with Martin. The
conviction was based in large part on a hypothesis that accelerants were
used to start the fire. Some samples from fire remnants in the master
bedroom reportedly tested positive for Norpar and deparaffinated kerosene.

Norpar can be used as lamp oil and deparaffinated kerosene can
be found in lighter fluid, but they are also common chemicals found in
numerous household products. Experts dispute the supposition that
these chemicals indicate the presence of accelerants and are petitioning to
check the state's evidence that the alleged chemicals were even found. A defense investigator thought the fire started on the back porch rather
than in the master bedroom near the back door. He criticized original
investigators for discounting and then disposing of an electrical cord that
was used to connect a refrigerator on the back porch to an outlet inside the
house. He thought the fire marshal was looking for arson from the
outset. (IP
Arson) [7/07]

Navarro County, TX

Todd Willingham

Dec 23, 1991 (Corsicana)

Cameron Todd Willingham was convicted of murdering his three
daughters by setting his house on fire. Under police interrogation,
Willingham said that his wife, Stacy, had left the house around 9 a.m. After she got out of the driveway, he heard his one-year-old twin daughters
cry, so he got up and gave them a bottle. The children’s room had a safety
gate across the doorway which his two-year-old daughter, Amber, could climb
over but not the twins. He and Stacy often let the twins nap on the floor
after they drank their bottles. Since Amber was still in bed, he went back
into his room to sleep. Willingham's house was warmed by three space
heaters, one of which was in the children's bedroom. This heater had an
internal flame. Amber had been taught not to play with the heater though
she reportedly got “whuppings every once in a while for messing with it.”Read More by Clicking Here

Pecos County, TX

Ernest Willis

June 11, 1986 (Iraan)

Ernest Ray Willis was convicted of murdering Gail Joe Allison,
25, and Elizabeth “Betsy” Grace Belue, 24. The victims died in a house fire
that was ruled an arson. Willis was sentenced to death. Police
said Willis acted strangely at the scene of the blaze, and they believed
that they found an accelerant in the carpet. Prosecutors used Willis's
dazed mental state at trial - the result of state administered medication -
to characterize him as “coldhearted” and as a “satanic demon.” Years
later, a federal court overturned Willis's conviction after finding that the
state had administered medically inappropriate anti-psychotic drugs without
Willis's consent; that it had suppressed evidence favorable to Willis; and
that Willis received ineffective representation at both the guilt and
sentencing phases of his trial.

A new district attorney, Ori T. White then reinvestigated the
case. The state's new arson specialist revealed that the “accelerant”
initially suspected of causing the fire was in fact “flashover burning,”
consistent with electrical fault fires. The state dropped charges
against Willis in 2004 and White commented that Willis “simply did not do
the crime. ... I'm sorry this man was on death row for so long and
that there were so many lost years.” Willis was awarded $430,000 for
his time behind bars. (San
Antonio Express-News) (Texas
Monthly) [3/06]

Pecos County, TX

Sonia Cacy

Nov 10, 1991

Sonia Cacy was convicted of the arson murder of her
76-year-old uncle, with whom she shared a house. Cacy's uncle, Bill
Richardson, was a careless chain smoker who smoked several packs a day. According to Cacy, his smoking had started about 50 fires, including one
about three years earlier that burned his leased home to the ground. Testimony described multiple cigarette burns on Richardson's furniture. The fire marshal had been to the home three times in the month prior to the
fatal fire to investigate smaller fires.

An autopsy of Richardson showed evidence he had a heart attack
and that he was dead before he could inhale any of the heavy smoke from the
fire. Nevertheless, at trial, Joe Castorena, the chief toxicologist
for the Bexar County Crime Lab testified that there was evidence of gasoline
on Richardson's clothing remnants. Based on this finding and no other
evidence, the prosecutor convinced a jury that Cacy had doused her uncle
with gasoline and set him on fire. Cacy was sentenced to 99 years of
imprisonment.

Cacy's court appointed lawyer, Tony Chavez, did little to
challenge Castorena's testimony. He did not hire an expert to rebut
Castorena, and he was later convicted of being part of a multi-ton marijuana
smuggling operation. The chain of custody of Richardson's clothing
remnants had been lost and the remnants presented at trial had no
documentation on them to show where they originated. Other clothing
remnants of Richardson had been sent to a Houston crime lab, which found no
evidence of gasoline. After serving 6 years of imprisonment, Cacy was
paroled in 1998. However, she is fighting her conviction, in part,
because she does not want to be on parole for another 93 years. (TIJ)
[7/07]

Brown County, WI

John Maloney

Feb 10, 1998 (Green Bay)

John Maloney, a detective in the Green Bay PD, and an arson
investigator, was convicted of strangling his estranged wife, Sandy, and
setting her body on fire. Maloney was a suspect because of their
impending divorce, ongoing child custody battle, and history of domestic
disputes. Sandy was a heavy user of prescription pills and was very
drunk at the time of her death. She apparently tried to hang herself
shortly before her death, but the cord broke causing her to bruise her head
on a coffee table. She then apparently started a fire by careless
smoking or perhaps deliberately. The state maintained that Maloney hit
her on the head, strangled her, and then set a fire that was staged to look
like the result of careless smoking.

Special prosecutor, Joe Paulus (DA of Winnebago County),
withheld evidence. Initially the fire was labeled an accident but
circular reasoning developed: “The fire guys decided it must be an
arson because it was murder. The coroner decided it must be a murder
because it was arson.” (TruthInJustice)
(Article 2)
(Article 3) (48
Hours) [11/05]

Japan

Tatsuhiro & Keiko

July 22, 1995 (Osaka)

Shimada Tatsuhiro and his common law wife, Aoki Keiko, were
both sentenced to life imprisonment for the arson murder of Keiko's
daughter. On the day of the alleged crime, Tatsuhiro filled the gas
tank of his van before returning to his home in the Higashi-Sumiyoshi ward
of Osaka. Ten minutes later he smelled smoke and noticed a small fire
in the garage under his van. Tatsuhiro searched for a fire
extinguisher, but the fire quickly grew and spread. Keiko's daughter
died in the fire after being overcome by smoke in a first floor bathroom. Keiko had 15 million yen life insurance policies on both her children. Life insurance on children was not uncommon, but 5 million yen and 10
million yen policies were more typical. The couple had no financial
difficulties at the time of the blaze.Read More by Clicking Here